Pride and its relation to power in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh

Abstract

Shahnameh is full of competent constructive and positive athletic pride. This pride is manifested with enumerating champion arts. It mentions the essence of race, heroism and fame in the battle field and confrontation with enemies. But in this book, we are faced with an inappropriate, destructive and negative pride which can be seen in character borders of the kings in Shahnameh; a pride that Ferdowsi described with words like “egotism” and “arrogance”. Kings and champions like Jamshid, Zahhak, Kavous, Esfandiar and Tous are the most prominent examples of people with pride and Keikhsoro is the greatest character freed from pride and Rostam is the complete model of competent pride in Shahnameh. In this article, the various factors that paved the way for pride in champions and sometimes kingdom of Shahnameh have been mentioned and their fates as well as the relationship between divine charisma and power and pride are followed.